Dubai Film Market enjoys growth spurt

The Dubai Film Market (DFM) enjoyed one of its buzziest editions to date this year, with a big increase in screenings, deals and meetings.

Some 1,400 participants benefitted from a new set-up which put 30 exhibition booths in close proximity with the producers and filmmakers at DFM’s co-financing events – the Dubai Film Connection (DFC) and Interchange. New national attendees included Algeria, Thailand and France.

“The general feeling was that the new set-up really worked. It was a lot easier for people to bump into one another – it was really buzzy,” said DFM’s international business manager Pascal Diot.

The DFM’s digital video library, the Cinetech also registered at increase in screenings. There were some 1,151 screenings by films professionals as opposed to 1,042 in 2012.

The five most popular titles by midday on Thursday were Mohamed Khan’s Factory Girl, Gaza Strip-set short Condom Lead, Hany Abu-Assad’s Omar, Emirati short Don’t Leave Me and Stable Unstable, about seven Beirut residents trying to find psychological balance.

The Forum schedule also expanded this year with 39 sessions in total. Overall, they were attended by some 1,500 participants. The DFC co-financing event also witnessed an uptick in activity with 486 meetings, against some 350 last year. A total of 70 companies attended. There were 16 official projects and another five side projects presented at the market.

Diot said it was too early to announce details but he believed some 20 sales had been done over the last week and that a number of DFC and Interchange projects had found new partners.

Leyla Bouzid’s As I Open My Eyes won best fiction film in the Muhr Feature competition at this year’s Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), while Mahmood Soliman’s We Have Never Been Kids scooped best non-fiction film and best director.

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